The Radio Plays

Known for his bravura performances that bring forgotten worlds and landscapes of the mind to the stage, Tom Stoppard has also gained a notable reputation for his brilliant plays for radio. This volume collects his major radio work for the first time, from the 1970s to the present. The volume begins with Darkside, one of Stoppard's most unusual projects--a radio play set to Pink Floyd's iconic album, Dark Side of the Moon. On Dover Beach takes as its subject Matthew Arnold writing his most famous poem--with a surprising take on his inspiration for it. In Albert's Bridge, Stoppard explores the Sisyphean task of bridge painting in his own exhilaratingly original way. The starting point in If You're Glad I'll Be Frank is a man recognizing the voice of a recorded telephone company message as that of his long-lost wife. In Artist Descending a Staircase, one of three aged artists is found dead under mysterious circumstances, and in Where Are They Now?, a school dinner intercuts with a school reunion dinner twenty-three years later. These plays are a joy to read on the page and showcase Stoppard's extraordinary talents for invention and innovation over the span of his career.